The Incredible Power that You PossessThe Role of Choice in a Free Market

Introduction — Something You Already Do

You do it every day, many times a day. I am not talking about that. . .or that. I am talking about making choices.

Let’s say that you are thinking of buying the latest electronic gadget. Where should you buy it?

You could go to Best Buy, but if you don’t like Best Buy, you could go to Staples or Office Depot or even to Target or Wal-Mart. If you don’t want to shop in any of those stores, you could order the thingamajig online from Amazon or even get it direct from the manufacturer in some cases. And it’s entirely up to you what brand you buy. Do you like the Apple version best? Go ahead and get it! Maybe you prefer Samsung or Hewlett-Packard or Sony or Toshiba or Motorola more. Suit yourself!

It’s totally up to you!

The Big Lie

Some people seem to think that private businesses have the power to force you to trade with them. Like they put an invisible tractor beam on your car and pull you against your will into their parking lot and then reach out with a robotic arm to drag you through the sliding doors into their building. Once you are inside, they apparently will haul you off to their dungeon if you don’t buy the product that they are featuring, and they’ll jab you with a red hot poker if you decide not to buy anything at all.

Once you are inside, they apparently will haul you off to their dungeon if you don’t buy the product that they are featuring, and they’ll jab you with a red hot poker if you decide not to buy anything at all.

Oh, and if the store is in need of some new employees, apparently they have the power and the means to chain you to one of their counters and force you to ring up the customers’ orders while paying you nothing. I am referring to the unfounded and illogical claim that if there were more economic freedom, private businesses would oppress the little guy. They would supposedly force people to buy only from them and would force people to work for them as slaves.

How could they?

It’s an obvious question, and nobody has been able to come up with a feasible answer whenever I have asked it. I can, however, give you five reasons that private companies could not and would not treat people that way.

Why Private Businesses Would Not Make You Do Things

Governments have jails. Retail outlets do not.

1. Forcing you to do things would be bad for business.

Nobody would shop in a store that tried to force you to shop there. If a retailer tortured people who left the store without purchasing anything, nobody would ever shop there again. Happy customers are what they need and what they don’t want to lose.

2. They have no authority to make you do anything.

Private businesses don’t have police forces, don’t operate prisons, cannot tax you, and don’t have the power to seize your assets or to garnish your wages. Currently only governments can do those things, and only if the government owns or tightly controls a business can it force you to do anything.

3. It is immoral to force people to act against their will.

When governments make you buy stuff, some people do not see that it is wrong. If a private business did it, though, most people would realize that it is wrong. It would be an obvious matter of principle and conscience. You would also have the right to seek reparations and the right to expose the evil actions of the company and to encourage others not to trade with them.

4. You control your own actions.

If you don’t want to shop at the Apple Store, then just don’t go there. You’re the one driving the car, and you can drive right on by without even looking at the building. [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]You’re the one driving the car, and you can drive right on by without even looking at the building.[/pullquote]

By what means could they force you to shop there?

5. You have alternatives.

Even in our regulated economy there is more than one place to buy electronic doodads and gewgaws, and if a company alienates customers, they will go somewhere else. Imagine how many more choices there would be in a free market than there are now! It is a lie that in a free market a single company could have a total monopoly, as Milton Friedman explains in this video:

Conclusion—Governments, Not Businesses, Hold the Power

When I was a child there was practically only one telephone company, and you were pretty much forced to get your phone service from them. It wasn’t because nobody else wanted to own and operate a telephone company. It was because the government had given Alexander Graham Bell special legal privileges that made it impossible for anyone else to compete on a large scale. It was government, not the phone company that created that monopoly.1

Everyone must now buy insurance. It’s not the companies that have forced everyone to buy it. The government has done that. It’s not the companies that force people to pay for certain coverage that they don’t want; it’s the government that has done that, too. Someone will point out that the insurance companies lobbied the government to do it, but that proves my point. The insurance industry could only impose its will on people by persuading the government to act on its behalf.

In other words, all of the false fears that people express about some imaginary world in which private companies can force people to work for them for low wages and can force people to pay them high prices for products and services they don’t really want is absurd. It is completely upside down in fact. The government runs the police and the jails. They have the power to confiscate your earnings. They have the power to make you buy certain light bulbs and to limit how much soda you can buy and to make you pay an extra tax for alcoholic beverages.

Written by

A husband, father, missionary, teacher, pianist, amateur writer, and family historian. He earned a B. A. and an M. A. in English, but don't hold that against him. He turned from conservatism to voluntaryism over the course of several years of intense thought and Bible study.

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